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Earlier today the new and improved WiredChurches.com went live. The highlight here is the new ecommerce solution that will hopefully make shopping for resources and registering for workshops and conferences a much more delightful experience for everyone. Props go out to one of our key volunteer techies, John D., for pulling off that huge transition. (I’m still giving you a big "Standing O" for that win, John.)

For the record, that shot of me walking down the country road with "the other simply strategic guy" may be the last time I tucked in my shirt.

Today the Business 2.0 Blog reported that there are 5,712 free WiFi hotspots around the world according to JiWire. One of them happens to be located at Granger Community Church. And, that’s what led to the unusual call this afternoon.

Several months ago our very capable communications team sent out a press release talking about the use of wireless access at Granger and specifically how we’ve incorporated that into our Saturday Night eXtras. That led to an interview I did with an Indiana business magazine. Then the Saturday Evening Post picked up the story.

Today we received a call from Andrea, a reporter from Marketplace, the business news programming for National Public Radio. She was doing a story on the growth and impact of WiFi and was interested in how we are using WiFi at the church. So, sometime tomorrow, you may hear Andrea and me on your local NPR station talking about WiFi at Granger Community Church.

In case you are wondering, I thought it was a fairly decent interview…all things considered. (I thought you needed a little bit of NPR humor.) Let me know if you actually hear the report.

UPDATE: Here’s the link to the Marketplace Morning Report story that was broadcasted this morning on NPR. You’ll need Real Player to listen to the audio file.

Here’s the "box score" for this past weekend at Granger Community Church.

Music: "Beautiful Life" by Fisher

Message: "Listen to the Music" — Mark Waltz, Pastor of Connections, interviewed three different married couples who revealed how their lives had been impacted by Jesus Christ and the ministry of Granger Community. Mark talked about the stories behind the numbers in his blog a couple of days ago.

Service Highlights: One of our volunteers produced a fantastic video with dancing water from the Granger men’s restroom faucets. It was very clever. The live experience included a combination of all the rhythm performances of the prior weekends from the series.

Stats: 4,475 total attendance (3,549 adults + 926 kids); 11.4% increase from the same weekend last year

Percentage of weekend attendance by service:

1. Sun 10:15 am = 25%
2. Sat 5:30 pm = 19%
3. Sat 7:30 pm = 19%
4. Sun 8:45 am = 18%
5. Sun 11:45 am = 18%

Final Notes: Next weekend is the first weekend in our newly expanded auditorium and children’s center. It’s also the opening weekend for our new series. You can check out the trailer at GCCwired.com.

Seth Godin reminded us again this week about the importance of Purple Cows. The key, as he suggested, though, is to continually be finding new cows. Seth wrote:

Organizations are not very good at creating the remarkable. People are. And after a person creates a purple cow, the organization milks that cow, relentlessly, for as long as it can. If the people in the organization don’t have the guts and the energy to ready a new cow, then the organization’s days are numbered.

This is one of those areas of leadership that really pushes me on a daily basis–particularly since I lead in a church. It could just be me, but it seems like the church (in general) has a fairly solid track record of finding purple cows and then milking those same cows for 50 years years or more. And sadly, that’s probably why the vast majority of churches are not experiencing growth. The message isn’t the cow, but the methods are, and the methods need to change frequently for the message to remain relevant in people’s lives.

So, I often look around and ask: What methods are we holding on to too tightly? Where do we need to change to continue to have impact in people’s lives? I don’t ever want to be stuck in a church that values its traditions higher than changed lives.

Thankfully I serve on a team that’s always on the lookout for the next purple cow.

If you are looking for a book to challenge your current thinking on community and small groups in the church, I recommend you pick up a copy of The Search to Belong by Joseph Myers. The primary premise of the book is that we all experience belonging in four unique types of spaces: public, social, personal and intimate. Myers suggests our goal should be to help people grow significant relationships in all four of those spaces.

Here are a handful of quotes that challenged me from the book:

• "Small groups do not accomplish the promise of fulfilling all facets of a person’s search for community…The truth is that people can experience belonging in groups ranging in size from two to 2,000 or more."
• "It is simply not true that people who belong only in public space are ‘on the fringe.’ Nor is it true that we somehow need to get them to move ‘closer’ to get them to be committed."
• "Can we be comfortable with people belonging to Jesus and the church in public space? Can we give them help, hope, and home in the space where they choose to belong? Without pushing them to come closer?"
• "Announcing programs that promise intimacy to every person within reach creates unrealistic expectations. Worse, it actually pushes those who are not ready for such relationships farther away."
• "So often our small group models encourage forced belonging. We surmise that putting people into groups will alleviate the emptiness so prevalent in our fast-paced culture… Sometimes this works. Sometimes it almost works. More times than not, it does not work, and, in extremes, it can wound and scar."

I believe, and I think Myers would agree, that small groups certainly have a place in the ministry of the local church. We just need to be careful about how we position them and we may want to rethink the expectations we communicate for the small group experience. If we talk about groups to help people find "intimacy," we’re probably setting almost all groups up for failure. We’re probably also scaring some people away from what might be a helpful relational connection.

"This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about–not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God."

I John 4:8-10 (The Message)

We’re live! Check out the new Granger Community Church website. My favorite new features are the media player and the stuff you can’t see. The website is fully integrated with our database. That means every event registration, group inquiry, commitment to volunteer and contact or question is automatically entered into our database for follow up. People will be getting a more personalized experience and it should make it easier for them to take their next step toward Christ at Granger. I love that! Check out the site and poke around a little. I think you’ll like it. And, if you search real hard, you may read about my favorite golfing moment.

I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but Memorial Day weekend feels like the unofficial beginning of summer for me. I love summer. It’s my favorite season of the year. And, when I can keep my drives on the fairways and putt well, I like it even more.

Since this is the beginning of summer (at least in my mind), I set out this week to find a church that would help me enjoy my summer experience even more. So, let me introduce you to the Journey Church. They’re located in Norman, Oklahoma…where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain…and the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet…when the wind comes right behind the rain. (I love that musical!)

The Journey Church is in the middle of a weekend series called "Relax." They’re using this opportunity to help people learn God’s plan for finding rest and simplicity within the non-stop pace of life. If you visit their website, you can even watch the first couple messages of this series. And, if you do that, I’d appreciate it if someone can help me figure out what kind of board that is that Brad uses to write on. Very cool. I think I have writing board envy.

"Yeeow! Ayipioeeay! We’re only sayin’ You’re doin’ fine, Oklahoma!" If I wasn’t attending Granger Community Church this weekend, I’d go to the Journey Church and learn to relax, and that makes them my cool church of the week.

I’m hanging by a thread to the Hawaiian shirttails of Rick Warren again this week (Rick doesn’t have coattails). His Ministry ToolBox republished my last article on volunteer team development. Do volunteers own the ministry of your church?

I ran across an interesting finding the other day. This comes from the May edition of Men’s Health magazine. (OK, I admit it. I have a subscription to Men’s Health. No, I’m not proud of it, but it has led to some fascinating conversations with my wife and for that I’m very grateful for the publishers that put out such a fine periodical that is committed to helping men experience healthy eating habits, improved exercise patterns, fashion sense and they hit other important topics that men consider from time to time which is all good and to be encouraged within the context of a biblical, healthy marriage and I’m probably not really justifying this very well for you but it works just fine for me so just leave me alone. My wife got me the subscription. So there.) According to the article, the Smell and Taste Center in Chicago found that the smell of pizza can actually raise the sex drive in men.

This finding sheds a great deal of light on a lot of things. Now I know why, as an example, I sense amorous feelings towards my wife whenever we eat Papa John’s pizza. Also, men generally eat a lot of pizza, which could explain why we tend to frequently have these amorous feelings for our wives.

Now, this really hasn’t been officially researched by the Smell and Taste Center in Chicago or any other prestigious research centers, but I’ve developed a list of some other activities, similar to smelling pizza, that appear to encourage the type of activity cited in the Men’s Health article. Here’s a sample list I’ve developed through my own observations:

• smelling spaghetti
• smelling lasagna
• smelling leftover chicken casserole
• smelling cabbage
• smelling Brussels sprouts
• tasting any of these foods
• looking at any of these foods
• shopping for any of these foods
• playing golf
• mowing the lawn
• watching ESPN
• filing my taxes
• listening to music recorded in the 1980s
• reading the business section of the Sunday paper
• washing the dishes
• drinking my morning coffee
• blogging

Now, as I stated, these are just my unofficial findings. This will certainly require some additional research. Since it’s highly unlikely that there are any other Men’s Health magazine readers in the audience, I felt it was my obligation to keep you informed on these scientific breakthroughs.

Got to go. Remember…blogging is on the list.